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Active Manhunt in Brussels after Terror Attacks; NYPD and FBI Coordinating Security. Aired 9-9:30a ET

Aired March 22, 2016 - 09:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


[09:00:02] ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: Right now cities around the world are on alert after terrorists strike a major European capital. This is brand new video of the aftermath that's just into CNN. Two explosions rocking the Brussels airport. We're seeing this now for the first time as you are seeing it. Let's watch.

At least one of those blasts carried out by a suicide bomber. It all happened around 8:00 a.m. local time at the airport then just an hour later and a few miles away attackers targeted a subway station in the heart of the city.

The mayor is about to speak at any moment.

In all more than 130 people have been wounded and at least 26 people are dead. Most of those deaths at the Metro Station as it bustled morning commuters.

Cries, panic, yelling, a child's screams as terrified passenger were forces to evacuate their subway cars and tunnels. They stumble out the doors into the dark tunnels rapidly filling with smoke.

At the airport stunned passengers waited for the debris and carnage of the dual explosions, ceiling tiles and shattered glass rained down on those in the airport departure hall where at least one of the explosions took place.

Now once outside, stunned passengers broke into a run, fleeing the building as smoke billowed out of the shattered windows.

Brussels, as you can imagine is in lockdown and on its highest terror alert level. There are reports two suspicious packages were found at the government office in Brussels. That building has been evacuated. Bomb squads are on site.

Now remember these are very early reports and as you know at a time like this often contradictory. Our correspondents are covering all the angles trying to get the most accurate information from you -- from the scene to the world's capitals now going on guard against the possibility of more attacks.

I want to begin with Nima Elbagir who's outside the airport.

Nima, you've been reporting on this now for several hours. Let's just bring our viewers up to date exactly what we know about the explosions first at the airport and then at the subway station.

NIMA ELBAGIR, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: The Belgium prime minister, Anderson, has said that there was a first explosion at around 8:00 a.m. this morning. That they later decided was a suicide attack. A second explosion followed.

Witnesses at the scene told us and told a number of Belgian media that they heard shouts in Arabic and gunfire. Now state media are reporting that investigators found a Kalashnikov by the body of one of the attackers which would be in line with what eyewitnesses were telling us pretty early on, Anderson.

There was a short lapse of time and then as we raced here to the airport we started hearing reports about the possibility of another attack, then the authorities confirmed Maelbeek station had been hit and that seems to be really where a lot of the injured and the death toll at the moment is climbing.

The Belgian prime minister had warned just an hour ago, Anderson, that the figures he gave at the time that he expected them to start moving upwards and already just in the 60 minutes have elapsed those figures Belgian media are reporting have gone from 10 to 14 at the train -- at the airport here and to 20 at that train station.

The video you showed our viewers a little earlier, when we spoke to those who are emerging from the train station the scenes that they described, one man inside a train cart said that he felt this gust of wind come out of nowhere. He later realized that that was the blowout from the explosion. Then it went dark. They heard the explosion and they -- luckily, though, authorities arrived quite quickly, he said, and moved them out through the tracks. As they came out he said he heard one woman screaming saying that there were bodies still down there on the tracks, Anderson.

COOPER: Nima, let's just talk about first of all at the airport. Two explosions. You said one known to be a suicide detonation. Do we know about the other one? Was it a suicide vest? Was it in a bag or -- do we know?

ELBAGIR: That is still yet unclear. A U.S. official who has had oversight, he said some of the early evidence emerging from this investigation said that Belgian authorities believe that it could have been inside a suitcase. A suitcase carried into the checking area, put on the ground and then detonated.

They believe -- this U.S. official certainly believes that the Belgian investigates don't think that there was any attempt to move through from the check-in area through that secure zone that they were happy to cause the most damage with the least effort essentially because this is very much a soft target. This is where people are arriving and there was very little -- although eyewitnesses tell us there was a higher official presence than there've been used to before at the airport here in Brussels but there really wasn't any check of bags, there wasn't any search, because they hadn't yet gone through the security check and point -- Anderson. [09:05:11] COOPER: Right. This is obviously the most vulnerable part

of an airport, the departure terminal where people are first entering. It's impossible to search all the bags as they are approaching the airport in cars and vehicles. So this obviously is, as you said, is softest of targets.

Is it clear exactly where in the terminal? I saw conflicting reports. Obviously there are a number of American airlines in that terminal. I saw some conflicting reports, the explosions might have taken place by the check-in counter to one of the American airlines. Do we know for a fact?

ELBAGIR: No. We still don't have any confirmation of that. As we approached the airport, though, we did see the grounded American Airlines plane that we're supposed to, in theory, have already started checking in, but we haven't managed to cross-reference that information as yet.

I should really say that this is an ongoing operation. We've been hearing reports of house raids, of searches. Belgian authorities have really asked the people try and limit the identification of where those searches are going on because this is still a manhunt. They believe that there possibly is a broader network. The network that was responsible for this attack. That that is still out there.

And while of course they are looking very closely into what happened here and what happened at the train station, they believe that those situation have now been contained. Their fear is who else is out there and what else are they planning. So that is now really the race against time -- Anderson.

COOPER: And I should point out, Nima, Belgian state media now says the death toll has risen to 34, and again this is very early hours with the number of people who have been wounded. That number it's very possible could rise. There's been appeal for people to donate blood in Brussels because there is a shortage of blood given all the need. Is that correct?

ELBAGIR: Yes, there has been. The prime minister spoke about it, he said he understands that people at this difficult time want to come together and he wants this to be a time of unity. And if you can help then please, please do come forward. And also they have set up a hotline and the number for that is available on the Belgian government Web site. So if anybody is worried about any loved ones who are here then they should check that.

The Dutch Red Cross has set up a Web site for Dutch because of Flemish speakers here in Belgium, for people to check in and say they're safe, as has Facebook. But we had this r this overflow of people contacting us and people reaching out on social media if anybody is worried about their loved one and the Belgian prime minister has confirmed that there are a number of nationalities among the dead then they really need to go online, go into the Belgian Web site and reach out to the Belgian authorities.

COOPER: So it's not known -- I often think in a situation like this, it's important to point out what we don't know as well as what we do. It's not known exactly how many people were involved in the attack at the airport, correct? I mean, there were two separate explosions. But do we know how far apart those explosions were in terms of distance? And do we know the total number of people involved?

ELBAGIR: Well, we understand that geographically they were very close together. Either within the same location, i.e., the departure hall or very close it. But there is really still no sense of how big this broader network spreads. And if we have learned anything since the Paris attacks there really is almost a lattice work of interconnecting radical networks here that coincide and come into play and work together. And some of these plots break apart for others and that is where the Belgian authorities are faced with here.

The prosecutors just a day or two ago talking about the Salah Abdeslam case, was saying we have 216 active files and even just Salah Abdeslam, the last remaining active attacker in Paris still alive is now in custody here. Even he was believed to be part of two separate networks, the Paris attack conspiracy and then another network that the Belgian foreign minister was warning just on Sunday, Anderson, they believe was plotting to carry out attacks here in Belgian.

So they are faced with a myriad of possibilities. And one of the first things the Belgian prime minister said was that we have been blindsided by this. And that gives you a sense of the enormity of what they are dealing with as they are trying to track out who else might be out there still.

COOPER: And Nima, the other possibility is that the capture of Abdeslam, as you said the 10th terrorist involved in the Paris attacks who has been on, you know, a massive manhunt for months, he was brought to custody after police raided his last known location. He was shot I believe in the leg. Taken into the custody.

The question is, was he involved in an active effort to stage another attack? Because he did have confederates with him, other people were taken into custody.

[09:10:07] And is this attack motivated because they felt the dragnet was closing in on them and that this is directly related to the capture of Abdeslam?

ELBAGIR: That was what authorities were warning about since the -- since the Friday, since they first confirmed that it was Salah Abdeslam that they had in custody. That they believed that he was involved in a potential new attack. And they also warned, the Belgian foreign minister warned against the possibility that jihadists could be making their way from Syria to take part in that attack. Their concern wasn't just homegrown networks. They believe that more people might be on the way and they really were very worried that they'd almost shaken the hornet's nest.

That in taking Salah Abdeslam into custody that it would press fast forward on any potential networks that he had been involved with -- in planning attack. But as of now they haven't confirmed any link between Salah Abdeslam and this attack. His network and this attack. What they have been saying really to us, Anderson, is that the lesson they learned post Paris is that the information that was out there in the public debate was used by Salah Abdeslam and his co-conspirators as they capture. They believe that.

So now this time around they are being very wary about what is put out there into the public domain because they don't what a repeat of that manhunt that dragged on for weeks and months.

COOPER: Certainly understandable on their part.

We're just getting more video now in on the aftermath of this attack. Let's play that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Stay down, stay down.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: Just giving you a sense of the immediate aftermath of the attack, the chaos, the confusion, obviously the dust that was created by the twin explosions. Nima Elbagir saying it is believed that they occurred relatively close to each other. You can see people with luggage carts. This was in the departure terminal, the most vulnerable part of an airport where in past years we have seen attacks as well. Because anybody know often there are roadblocks before getting into an airport in many countries around the world authorities don't search every single bag in vehicles as they get to an airport or search people before they actually go through screening.

Nima, we're being told that there may be a controlled explosion or already have been a controlled explosion at the airport. I'm wondering if you have heard anything about that. There are some conflicting reports, some reports say another device may have been found and that's what has already been exploded or they plan to explode. Do you know anything on that?

ELBAGIR: Well, we did hear conflicting reports quite early on about whether this was initially two or three explosions, and whether potentially that third explosion that people were hearing could have been a controlled device that was detonated. We have already seen the forensic teams go in so if that detonation did happen, it would have already occurred for them to be sending in the investigation teams at this point because they wouldn't want to detonate while the teams were there on the ground combing through looking for what they could find.

We haven't been given any signal here on the ground that there is going to be another detonation yet, Anderson.

COOPER: Nima, one of the men who was killed in the raid on March 15th, the raid that ultimately led to the capture of Abdeslam is believed to have been one of the coordinators of the Paris attacks. The person who Abaaoud and the others actually were taking their orders from, isn't that correct? And is it known whether or not the bomb maker who actually created the vests that were used in the Paris attacks has that -- has the bomb maker been apprehended or killed? ELBAGIR: We don't know which of the two men that were -- that are

believed to have been the key co-conspirators was the bomb maker. So you have Samid Bouzid, who you were referring to. He was killed in that apartment where authorities only just yesterday evening confirmed that they had found detonators at that property. So we don't know which of those two men would have been responsible. Would have been in charge of the use of those detonators, the utilizing of those detonators.

The second co-conspirator, he is himself at the center of what before this morning's events unfolded was really the key focal point of authorities here and intensifying manhunt.

[09:15:02] ELBAGIR: At the time, we only knew him under his alias of Soufiane Kayal, and he was also intercepted, giving orders to Abbaoud, to the Paris attacks ring leader. He is now on the run and he was believed to have been in that same apartment with Salah Abdeslam and with Samir Bouzid.

So now authorities have these two unraveling situations. They have an unfolding and fluid attack, complex attack here, that they are trying to marshal whatever remains of the network of that. And then you also have Soufiane Kayal, AKA, as we now know him, as Najim Laachraoui, who is himself on the run. They are -- it is just -- it's a nightmare of a situation for the Belgium authorities. There is real concern about their ability to remain or even to get one step ahead of the networks that are operating here, Anderson.

COOPER: Yes, I mean, it's an extraordinary situation tat authorities are facing there. I mean, we know and we've done a lot reporting, certainly in the wake of the attacks in Paris, on the difficulties, just the shear volume of people who have returned from Syria, the sheer volume of people who have been radicalized and may have military training or are simply are just aspirational and willing to kill themselves in an attack like this, for a country like Belgium to deal with. They are essentially stretched to the limit in terms of their resources.

ELBAGIR: Yes. Absolutely. I mean, just, they have managed to slow down that pipeline to and from Syria but the numbers are still pretty extraordinary. The minister of interior acknowledged to us that previously they were dealing with, on average, 15 people going to Syria every single month. And for a country the size of Belgium, that's just mind blowing. They've managed to get the numbers down to 5-6 within 2015. But that is still -- you know, if you even have dozens returning, and already authorities believe that there are over 100 that have returned. and those are the ones they know of. So those are the ones that are under their scrutiny. The ones that have been able to come in without their knowledge -- Samir Bouzid was an Algerian. He was illegally in the country. They had no official record of him. How many more? And that's what the Belgians are having to deal with.

Belgium contributes per capita the highest number of ISIS fighters in Western Europe. And if only a limited number of those make their way back, then the authorities have an extraordinary headache on their hands. And that's really why we've been hearing from Francois Hollande this morning talking about how there will be international cooperation and there will be international support because it is so clear that the Belgians are in need of that here.

COOPER: Manhunts continue now for anybody else who may have been involved in this attack. But, Nima, based on what you said about this confederate from the Paris attacks who is still out there, it is very possible, and authorities frankly haven't said or don't know, whether the bomb maker who made the devices that were used in Paris, the suicide vests in Paris, it's very possible that same person was involved in this attack today.

ELBAGIR: Yes, of course it is. Authorities are trying very hard not to confirm or deny anything. I'd imagine at this stage in the investigation, they themselves have are trying very hard to pin down as much information as they can.

But, yes, this is the reality now -- this is the unfolding reality here in Belgium. You could quite possibly be dealing with the same bomb maker. We just don't know. As of yet, authorities haven't even confirmed that this is ISIS, let alone where this is or these are the same networks.

But this has just been such difficult time post-Paris and all we have seen is that these networks have continued to be able to evade capture and to evade scrutiny. So really at this point in time, everyone we're speaking to, including intelligence sources, tell us every possibility is still on the table, Anderson.

COOPER: We now know much more about the attacks that took place in Paris months ago. We now know about the coordination, what it took to coordinate three separate teams attacking multiple locations. Cell phone calls were traced between the various groups of attackers and a number in Brussels. One of those people was killed just last week who is believed to have been the person helping coordinate, taking those calls.

What's not known, Nima,, today, when you have essentially coordinated attacks here -- you have an attack, twin strikes at the airport and then about an hour later at the subway station. The assumption is that those are two separate groups. What's not known is was there a central coordinator who each of these groups was communicating with to help coordinate the timing, to help coordinate the planning of this?

[09:20:07] ELBAGIR: Well, given the timing and given the way they hit both rush hour here at the airport and then rush hour on the subway, the working theory is that this would have been -- there would have been a central coordinator, that this would have been part of the same network, and that the way they were planned to cause the maximum disruption, so you get the early morning flight arriving here as people -- or departing here. As, you know, because Brussels is very much a commuter city for the rest of Europe, people coming in and out for European Union business, for NATO business. And then you hit the rush hour.

So the sense that most of those we're speaking to is -- have is that it would make sense that this is part of the same network and that this was all run by central coordinator. And we've seen in Paris how smoothly, when they want to, these networks can coordinate. Salah Abdeslam was responsible for renting the cars. He ferried the attackers. And he was responsible for even the way that they spread out across those different locations. So their planning has already been shown to be at a very sophisticated level.

COOPER: Nima, we're going to continue to check in with you at the Brussels airport.

But I also want to bring in someone who was at the airport when those blasts went off, Jeff Versele. He was getting ready to travel for a business trip. He's joining us now over the phone from Brussels.

Jeff, thanks very much for being with us. You're on the air. First of all, are you OK? How are you doing?

JEFF VERSELE, WITNESS TO AIRPORT EXPLOSION (via telephone): I'm fine, thank you.

COOPER: Jeff, where were you? What did you see and here?

VERSELE: So I was -- I arrived at the airport to check in for my flight to Rome. And then when I entered the airport building, there was an explosion. Yes. And soon aft that one, there was a second one.

(CROSSTALK0

COOPER: Do you know about how far apart the explosions were?

VERSELE: I think it should be two floors below where we were standing. But because the entrance halls of the check-in area is linked with the first and second floor. And that's why there was so damage on the floor where I was.

COOPER: Do you know about how far apart in terms of time the second -- the first and second blasts were?

VERSELE: Not more than two minutes.

COOPER: Not more than two minutes.

VERSELE: Not more than two minutes. But it seems to be quite a long time because you are devastated by fear.

COOER: And were you -- did you -- were you immediately able to get out of the airport?

VERSELE: Yes. I was -- I was close to the exit door. So then I started, the people started to run all over and running out of building. And I at first trying to help a few people who were injured in the building, and by the time that the security and the army was there, they request us to leave the building. But by then, all of the other people left the building, yes.

COOPER: So just to be clear both explosions were in the departure terminal, both explosions were in the area where people go to check in?

VERSELE: The explosion was when -- from where I could see, from where I stand, I think it was in the -- in the bottom floor. So I was in the check-in area is second floor. So the explosion was not on our floor, but because, like the stairway case is coming in to that departure area and that's why a lot of things where I was standing were destroyed because the explosion looked for a getaway and that was obviously the top floor.

COOPER: Jeff, when you got to the airport --

VERSELE: The damage below should be much bigger on the ground floor and then the first floor I think, but that of course I haven't seen.

COOPER: Jeff, when you got to the airport this morning for your flight, were there any checks before actually entering the structure of the airport? Were there -- was your vehicle at all stopped? The trunk opened? Anything like that.

VERSELE: No, no, no. So the Brussels area, I flight out frequently. So the Brussels area, airport ,is for me very easy. So I have (INAUDIBLE), so I am there one hour in advance, more than enough. And it takes me about, not more than ten minutes to check in. So I drive up my car. I park the car and two minutes later, I'm in the departure hall. So it's very close distance.

(CROSSTALK)

COOPER: So there is no pre-check of a vehicle?

VERSELE: No, nothing, nothing. No, you just park your car, you take your ticket, you park your car. I parked my car always an the same floor, on the sixth floor, on the top roof.

[09:25:02] I take the elevator and go straight into the departure hall.

COOPER: Jeff Versele, I appreciate you talking with us this morning and I'm so glad you are doing OK. Thank you and I know obviously your thoughts and prayers are with all those who have been affected by this.

Thirty-four now dead according to Belgian media. More than 170 injured. Appeals for people to donate blood in Brussels. That is how the bad the situation is there; that is how bad the need is there right now.

I want to bring in justice correspondent Evan Perez; he's joining us here in Washington. What are you hearing on this attack?

EVAN PEREZ, CNN JUSTICE REPORTER: Well, Anderson, one of the things that investigators in Brussels are looking into is whether or not one of these bombs at the airport was contained inside a suitcase. Again, this is early in the investigation, as you and I repeatedly state in these type of situations, early in the investigations. But we do know from the prosecutor that one of the bombs was a suicide bombing. The second, second explosion, appears to have been, at least that's the -- what investigators, their working theory that investigators have right now, may have been contained inside a bag or a suitcase.

This was a target of opportunity. This was an attack that occurred outside of the security cordon. And this is the most difficult part of an airport to secure simply because people are -- there are large crowds gathering before they go through the security screening. And so --

COOPER: It's virtually impossible for an airport to pre-screen anybody approaching an airport. I mean, you can try do that -- I mean, even in some airports after attacks there are roadblocks set up. A police officer might look in a vehicle. But --

PEREZ: But then someone could attack where people are lining up to go through that security cordon.

The second attack, the other attack occurred on the transit system. Again, a very difficult place again for authorities to secure. That's what's on the mind of U.S. officials this is morning. One of the things that they were doing was coordinating, doing conference calls, trying to coordinate their response here in the United States. We have officials in New York and here in Washington who've increased security both on the D.C. Metro system, the New York subway system. The airports there in New York are also, you're going to see a lot more security. Amtrak is checking people. Simply because of the concern about the possibility of copycats. There is no information indicating that anybody is trying to do anything here but, given the situation and the fact that sometimes you have people who copy these attacks and follow on them, that's the concern.

COOPER: It's one that -- we've heard obviously about increased security in New York, I know Carol Costello is going to cover that shortly in this hour, but one of the things the New York Police Department does is they actually usually send people or have people liaise overseas in the wake of an attack like this to try to get immediate information that's actionable in terms of the M.O., the modus operandi, of the terrorists so that they can, the New York police and other police departments around the country ,can adapt their tactics.

PEREZ: Right.

COOPER: Because the enemy is adapting their tactics constantly.

PEREZ: Exactly, and the FBI and the NYPD both have been at work in Brussels trying to coordinate because of the very reason you're talking about. There is a lot of information that the Belgians now possess, the arrest of Salah Abdeslam last week, and certainly just the investigation into the cell that carried out the Paris attacks. There's a lot of information that they have and they're trying to get some of that here so that they can see if there's any nexus to the United States.

So far they have found no indications that there were any plots here in the United States, but here is the problem, as we've covered a lot on the air here at CNN. The Belgian -- Belgium is a very difficult place. There's some antiquated laws. Until recently, there was a law that prohibited police from launching nighttime raids. There's laws that prohibit magistrates -- magistrates prohibit share of information with foreigners, for instance. There is a great deal of privacy concern in Europe, especially in Belgium, the capital of the European Union.

So that's one of the things they are dealing with. Sharing that information is very difficult. Even in the aftermath of Paris and what that exposed, which is a lack of sharing of information. There is still a lot of work to be done there. The New York Police Department is there. So is the FBI. And they are trying to get some more information to try to see if there's anything we need to be worried about.

COOPER: Evan is going to continue working his sources. We'll have more with him obviously throughout this day.

Paul Cruickshank has written an extraordinary piece on CNN.com, bringing us up to date on what we now know about the Paris attack. He's standing by with Carol Costello. Let's go to Carol. Carol?

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: All right, thanks so much, Anderson.

I want to bring in Paul Cruickshank and I also want to bring in Michael Weiss who's a CNN contributor and co-author of "ISIS: Inside the Army of Terror". Glad to have you both here.

So, first off, Paul, how likely is another attack?

PAUL CRUICKSHANK, CNN TERRORISM ANALYST: It's certainly very possible in the hours ahead. There is an active man hunt going on right now in Brussels according to the Belgian public broadcaster, FTBF (ph).

[09:30:00] Belgian media have now agreed to basically not report any new information about this ongoing man hunt, this ongoing investigation, because they want to give the Belgian security chances every chance.